She is sold

We have sold Mer Soleil, It comes with a little sadness. She has treated us well and never let us down.  Everything must change and this is just another step in our lives.  We watched Mer Soleil being hauled out for survey.  It is funny how boats look so out of place on land.  We would like to wish Mer Soleil's new owners Beth & Ned Allbright of Rock Hill, SC fair winds and calm seas. She is an awesome boat and we will always remember our adventures with her.

This is our final Blog entry on this site. We will be creating a new Blog when we purchase our new boat.

Under Contract

We have a contract on Mer Soleil, since it is so close to the holidays we are scheduled for survey on the first week of  January 2012.  We have decided to spend the week of the holidays traveling around Florida and seeing family as well as shopping for a boat.  Its amazing to see the boats for sale and the condition they are in.  It made us realize what good shape our boat is in.  The buyers of our boat are getting a hell of a a deal.  During our trip we realized There are a lot of nice places around Florida.

An Important Decision

After almost two years of owning Mer Soeil we have decided we want to liveaboard full time.  Although people do liveaboard vessels of this size we would like a little more space and features. Since we will be working for a few more years we have to have room for our work clothes as well. There is a little sadness as mer Soleil has treated us well and never let us down. we have done many improvements. The new owners will be getting a great boat. We listed her on boat trader.

Are main features we are looking at is 42 - 50 ft range, centerline queen bed in the master, washer and dryer, lots of storage.  So the search begins.

Port St Joe

We were sitting on the dock behind our boat Friday night and we were trying to decide what to do. we both had Monday off so we decided to go to Port St Joe in the morning. It is only a four hour trip at our usual 8 knots. Next morning we got up picked up some ice and headed out. We stopped at the fuel dock for 50 gal of diesel, we hadn't taken on any fuel since June. Although since we only burn 2 gallons an hour at cruise we do not spend much time at fuel docks.

The weather was going to be beautiful in the morning and the wind was going to change form an offshore wind to an onshore. This would cause the waves to build but we had plenty of time. With the seas almost flat we made the run on the outside. As we approached Cape San Blas the wind switched and increased rapidly. There were white caps in St Joseph Bay. The smaller boats were crawling back into the marinas fighting the chop. About 1330 we arrived at the Port St Joe Marina, it is a friendly and inexpensive Marina. You can walk to the grocery store from the marina it is about 100 yards. it is an easy walk to downtown Port St Joe.

We ate at the oyster bar at the marina and retired early.

There was an other trawler behind us on a 42 ft Present sundeck trawler, Dual Dreams. They were in Port St Joe for the week and then they were heading to the keys and then the Bahamas. Wish that was us.

It turned out there was a songwriters contest that weekend and many places were having live music. We found a place called Haughty Heron. The second floor is actually a 3 bedroom 2 bath place you can rent out.

We had lunch at Sunset Grill which is a mile from the marina. Great food and nice owners. Have to try the Lobster Bisque. They only make it on Saturdays.

 The seas were going to be 4 to 6 ft so we decided to return on the inside in the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GICW) also know as the ditch.

It was a great trip and with a favorable tide we picked up almost a knot of speed for most of the way. It was so peaceful almost no traffic.

We had dolphins on both sides of the boat for almost 2 hours. We arrived back to Panama City at 1600. What a great relaxing weekend. We need to do that more often.

Shell Island - Summer 2011

We enjoy going to Shell Island. It is less then an hour to our favorite anchorage and the water is what you find in the islands. The island is only about 150 yards wide from the Bay to the Gulf.

 The sunsets over the Gulf are so beautiful you can not cease to be amazed.

Vickie's Brother came over to visit. He is back from Afghanistan. We we hoisted his kayak up on top of the sundeck with our new davit and took it out to the island with us.  He had a blast, even the dogs got in on the action.

Labor Day - Tropical Storm Lee

We had planned on a taking a very long weekend and going to Orange Beach, Alabama to the Wharf but Tropical Storm Lee had other ideas. We spent the Labor Day Holiday at the dock with some extra lines riding out the storm. We had gusts up to 60 knots and tides about 1 1/2 ft above normal.

New Davit

We finally got around to installing our Davit. Vickie got a deal on a Dinghy (1.5 ft Rib 15 HP Mercury), no more putting around with our little 3.3 HP motor. We decided to go with a 12 volt motor so we wouldn't have to run the generator to raise or lower the dinghy. We added a dedicated battery just like the windlass with its own solar charger.

It turned out to be a good choice since the first time we went out after adding the davit the Voltage Regulator Board on the generator went out. Ordered a new one and we were back in business.

Being the engineer type I over designed the mount for the davit a bit.